Original subtitles

Your identity is no longer hidden.

What do you mean to do with

those two disciples of yours?

The fact that we are still alive is nothing but fortune.

I trust you will not betray us.

And that is because your children

rest in the heavens,

watching over you.

Someone kind crossed paths with you.

They even set polished rice before an unclaimed memorial tablet.

Chang'an

is indeed a place of deep prosperity.

We have reached the final brink.

Soon, my children,

our answer will come soon.

Thirty years have passed.

When Chang'an falls,

even in the winter,

the people of Tiemo will have more grain than they could ever finish.

If only you had been born in such times,

how good that would have been.

These past few days I have felt something is wrong.

Huai'an has not returned.

Around the clinic, there have been many unfamiliar faces.

All of this was arranged by you.

Why?

Master.

If you mean to kill me,

at least let me die knowing why.

It is a simple truth.

The people of Tiemo have entered the city.

I am Tiemo as well.

Every Tiemo shadow guard in the city is searching for Xie Huai'an.

He is capable,

and he vanished without a trace.

Fortunately I have you two.

He has very few friends.

For your sake,

he would do anything foolish.

Xiaoqing's life is hanging by a thread.

Do not resist.

Take her away quickly,

and treat her wounds.

Master.

Xiaoqing.

Master.

Xiaoqing.

- What happened to you? - It hurts.

Do not be afraid.

I am here.

You can only return to the clinic.

There are many of our people on Xiaocaomen Street.

They will look after you both.

Master.

Must it truly be this way?

For the great cause of Tiemo,

the lives of a child or two taken in

are not worth much.

Xiaoqing.

Let us go home.

Xiaoqing.

Hold on. We are almost at the clinic.

Do not worry.

I will heal you, I promise.

The wounds can be mended.

But what of the heart?

I will kill them for you.

And Master?

Will you kill him too?

UMBRELLAS

You collapsed before Gu Yu's grave.

Our people carried you back.

How many days has it been?

Four days.

The physician examined you.

He said you did not faint from injury

but fell asleep.

Four days.

News of Gu Yu's death

must have reached the north by now.

The death of a general

can shake an army's resolve.

The Baiwenhu Army

may not hold.

Now that the Tiemo forces march south,

what of Chang'an

as it stands today?

Yesterday,

Tiemo troops breached the North Office.

The North Office

is only 1300 li from Chang'an.

The Huben Army excels at gathering intelligence.

Nothing that happens in Chang'an escapes your eyes.

Tell me,

my friends…

Are they all dead?

I fear

they may wish they were.

Good.

If so,

then they are still alive.

And if they live, there is hope.

My pageboy…

Where is he now?

You are…

Have we met before?

The last time we met was 15 years ago.

Back then, you were a young prince of Chang'an,

studying at the Grand Academy.

To shirk your lessons,

you often claimed to be ill.

You are…

After all these years,

there is something I have always wondered.

The gift I gave you…

Did you ever use it?

I have a gift for you.

Mentor.

Wu Zhongheng?

It is me.

Who are you, truly?

Xie Huai'an did not have time to tell you, I suppose.

I am Tiemo.

All of Chang'an speaks of Gu Yu's death.

Yes.

I was the one who killed him.

Do not be alarmed.

I will not kill you.

Sit. Let us speak of old times.

Come. Sit.

How long have you been hiding?

More than 20 years.

I traveled across your entire land,

then spent a few more years building a reputation,

befriending the powerful.

Liu Ziwen, Yan Fengshan,

Grand Preceptor Cen Weizong,

even your father were all good friends of mine.

During my years at the Grand Academy,

I saw for myself the brightest talents of Chang'an.

Xie Huai'an, Gu Yu,

and your elder brother,

Xiao Wuyang.

And you

were the most timid of them all.

You are not the first to say that about me.

Once,

Yan Fengshan said the same thing.

Do not pity yourself.

Because it is precisely your timidity

that makes you the ideal candidate for the throne.

Many who hold power think so.

And so do

the faraway people of Tiemo,

those who serve at the altar on Mount Shiluoman.

You see,

timidity can sometimes be a means of survival.

It allows you to live far longer than most.

Take Gu Yu,

a man who always charged to the front.

Men like him only die first.

By the way,

was it

Xie Huai'an's idea to send you away?

You were born into the imperial line,

yet you scare so easily.

Yan Fengshan kept you under his thumb for years.

The throne slipped from your grasp long ago.

But in the great city of Chang'an,

he is hardly the only one who wants to become another Yan Fengshan.

Whoever grows powerful

will try to control you.

And this truth

is something Xie Huai'an certainly understands.

He should have killed you the moment he had you

under control.

If peace is what he wanted,

your death would have settled everything.

He is more human

than you or Yan Fengshan ever were.

Indeed.

You threw snakes at him back then,

yet he can still call you friend.

He truly has a kindness that serves him little.

When I entered Chang'an,

my first move against the Huben Army

was to give him a new face

and a forged identity,

fooling everyone.

Even Yan Fengshan

might never have guessed it.

What I did not expect

was that this plan

would be uncovered by the King of Tiemo.

Zhu Zhilong is Tiemo as well.

It turns out

they had infiltrated us long before we knew it.

My poor friends, both of them.

I want to go out.

Do you know where you are?

Of course I do.

This was once my sister's home.

The pear tree in the courtyard

was planted by her own hand.

To me,

this is where the general lived

and where he died.

Perhaps people like us

are fated

to choose in the midst of chaos

between vengeance

and duty to the realm.

You do not need to choose.

I have already given you my word.

When the Tiemo are defeated,

you may come to settle your debt with me at any time.

And in doing so,

you will honor the Huben Army and General Fengshan.

With the general gone,

the Huben I can command is limited.

But if you fight the Tiemo,

I will help you.

For now,

I need time to think.

I said

I want to go out for a walk.

Before he died, Yan Fengshan said

that the streets of Chang'an

might offer a different view.

Then tomorrow,

walk around Chang'an.

Chang'an

can be beautiful at times.

I will leave this for you.

Let us look over there.

Steamed buns.

‪FFENG'S CURED HAM SHOP, ‪EIGHT-DIRECTIONS GOODS SHOP

Huai'an.

An army may fall to the last man.

But Chang'an

must not fall.

This is Gu Yu's

battle report that he hid inside his body.

Once you read it,

you will know where you must go.

Right now my friends' fate is unknown

and I have no one else to trust,

so I can only leave it in your hands.

But if you have other plans,

you are free to choose another path.

But I fear that Chang'an

can no longer be held.

I will deliver this to where it must go.

Thank you.

Is there any news of Xiao Wuyang?

There has been no word at all.

What are you planning to do?

You mean to head north.

Gu Yu is dead.

I have no allies left to rely on.

The deposed emperor and Ye Zheng are both in their hands.

The Tiemo are waiting for me.

This is the only road left to me.

I will go to the Tiemo,

and help them kill Xiao Wuyang.

In the imperial court,

the ones the Tiemo fear most are Yan Fengshan and Xiao Wuyang.

Now that Yan Fengshan is dead,

our only chance

lies with Xiao Wuyang.

You should go.

And you

had better not die.

You owe no debt of life to the Tiemo.

You owe it to General Fengshan.

I owe him nothing.

Go.

Take care.

Father.

I failed to protect my sister.

No one walks away

unscathed

after facing Yan Fengshan.

You guarded her all these years

and did everything you could.

In the end,

you even avenged her.

Do not be so hard on yourself.

Seeing my son so weak and worn

breaks my heart.

A father

always aches for his child.

Since you came to Chang'an,

you have already lost too much.

Then take the red ribbon down.

Father.

Though our family's vengeance is repaid,

Chang'an

is far from peaceful.

I waited all night.

I only wished to tell you one thing, Father.

The King of Tiemo has arrived in Chang'an.

Then take the red ribbon down.

Very well.

I didn't dare come

until everything was settled.

Xie Huai'an's friends

can no longer escape.

We need only wait for him to show.

White Hair entered Yan Fengshan's courtyard.

I cannot tell whether he won or lost,

so I sent you in.

For that,

you had to kill the master you served for years.

Do you regret it?

No.

I have only ever served one master with my life.

Yan Fengshan is dead.

The Huben Army is no longer a threat.

Gu Yu is dead as well.

Our forces

can march straight into the heart of their empire.

Only one danger remains.

Xiao Wuyang.

If he dies,

Chang'an will fall.

Xiao Wuyang stands alone now.

This time, if our plan is thorough,

he will not survive.

I saw something like this once, a man on the edge of death,

hanging high on a platform.

He was an ordinary man,

yet he lived for seven days and nights.

If someone ordinary can fight so hard to survive,

what about the King of Death, Xiao Wuyang?

Yes.

The noodles are here.

Chili oil noodles.

Scallions dipped in vinegar.

It has been more than ten years.

Sha,

you still remember my favorite bite.

Of course I do.

Had I forgotten,

I would have lost my head.

Sha,

Cen Pickles came by, didn't he?

No.

After the Liu clan was wiped out,

Yan Fengshan purged Liu's faction,

and he never showed himself again.

Does he still need to hide from Yan Fengshan's blade?

Don't you also…

Don't you also hide from him? Unbelievable.

Sha,

that you've survived this long with that temperament

feels like a miracle to me.

Eat while it's hot.

Sha,

in this world,

I have patience for very few people.

You are one of them.

Cen Pickles is the other.

If he came to you,

and you don't wish to tell me, or he forbade you to say,

it doesn't matter.

Just pass on a message for me.

Tell him I have arrived in Chang'an.

And tell him I hope

we are still friends.

Cen Pickles,

who is he?

A man surnamed Cen.

Twenty years ago,

everyone knew his name.

The Grand Preceptor, Cen Weizong?

He was a friend of His Majesty?

The founding emperor,

Liu Ziwen,

the Grand Preceptor Cen Weizong,

and the man just now,

when they were young, often gathered here.

Yan Fengshan

would sometimes come along too.

He was younger than the rest of them.

And in their eyes,

the so-called General Fengshan

was just an inexperienced young man.

An inexperienced young man?

Later,

didn't he rule the empire for over ten years?

In your eyes,

I am also an inexperienced young man, aren't I?

You…

You are not human.

When I had nowhere left to go,

the boss took me in.

Later,

I went outside the city to collect his body.

He was crushed to death.

Not even beasts would do such a thing.

I remember the boss's kindness.

But I was born a Tiemo man.

My life was not his to give.

Can I have a bowl of noodles?

Get out.

After more than ten years apart,

I meet you again.

This is Yang Chuhao's courtyard.

Why did you suddenly decide to sun his books?

In his study, there truly are many fine volumes.

I even found a travelogue written by a friend

from my youth.

Reading it

was like meeting an old friend again.

An old friend?

Then I am also one of your old friends.

Of course.

At the Grand Academy, I once asked you,

when you grew up,

what kind of achievement you wished for.

Do you remember?

Of course I do.

I asked you, when you grew up,

what kind of career you wished to build?

In times of peace, to aid a wise ruler.

And in times of chaos?

In times of chaos,

to kill every enemy.

White Hair,

have you come to kill me?

Mentor,

these hands of a scholar

now hold no iron, no blade.

How could they possibly kill the King of Tiemo?

I came

to trade for my friend's life.

You say you came to save a friend,

but I do not believe you would bow your head so readily.

It has been over ten years,

and your intellect alone is enough to chill one's bones.

You killed Yan Fengshan with strategy,

because you understood him.

White Hair,

as for me,

how well do you understand me?